The University of Maine at Presque Isle is pleased to host one of its Emeritus faculty members, Dr. Richard Shain Cohen, for a reading and book signing on Tuesday, Sept. 13 at 2 p.m. in the Normal Hall Faculty Lounge. Light refreshments will be served and the community is invited to attend.

The University of Maine at Presque Isle will host its 16th annual Community and Club Fair on Thursday, Sept. 15, from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. in the Campus Center Multipurpose Room.

For the past 16 years, the University has kicked off the academic year with this event, which allows campus clubs and organizations to showcase and promote their groups to the student body and the community.

The University of Maine at Presque Isle’s Reed Fine Art Gallery will present the exhibition Landscape – Love & Longing from September 11 through October 22, bringing to Maine the work of artist Jennifer Pazienza, Professor of Art Education at the University of New Brunswick. The public is invited to attend the exhibition’s opening reception, to be held on Sunday, Sept. 11 from 2-4 p.m.

Community members and education officials gathered on Thursday, Sept. 1 for the Houlton Higher Education Center’s 10th anniversary celebration, which included an open house and an official program that marked the Center’s first decade of providing close-to-home educational opportunities for the region.

The Houlton Higher Education Center will mark its first decade of serving the community and providing close-to-home educational opportunities during a special 10th anniversary celebration and open house on Thursday, Sept. 1 from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.

U.S. Congressman Michael H. Michaud will serve as the keynote speaker during the official program, which gets underway at 1 p.m. The program also will include a Native blessing and the unveiling of a new granite installation at the building’s entrance.

The University of Maine at Presque Isle will celebrate the 224th birthday of the signing of the U.S. Constitution with a unique “Living History” lecture delivered by UMPI political science lecturer Dr. Brent Andersen.

On Friday, September 16, from Noon to 1 p.m., students, faculty, staff and community members are invited to observe Constitution Day by gathering in the University’s Campus Center for the special lecture, which is titled Becoming America: Alexander Hamilton Recalls America’s Journey from The Declaration of Independence to the Constitution of the United States.

The University of Maine at Presque Isle will hold an opening reception for its newest exhibition entitled Me & Some Friends in conjunction with Presque Isle’s First Friday Art Walk on Friday, August 5 from 5-7 p.m. in the University’s Reed Art Gallery.

This impromptu exhibition will display works of art from 14 area artists and friends of UMPI Gallery Director Sandra Huck. Huck said an empty slot in the Reed Gallery schedule created the perfect opportunity for friends to pull together an exciting and creative exhibition.

Riverside Park in Downtown Presque Isle will once again be filled with music on Sunday afternoons this summer as the City of Presque Isle, the Presque Isle Downtown Revitalization Committee and the University of Maine at Presque Isle host the Fourth Annual “Music in the Park” Series.

This year’s music series kicked off on Sunday, July 10 and will continue with concerts on Sunday, July 17, 24 and Aug. 7, 2011.

The free concert series, which attracted average crowd sizes of about 200 people per show last year, includes shows ranging from Peruvian music to African drumming. Each Sunday afternoon performance features a main act as well as an opening act, giving the community a chance to hear some of the region’s finest up and coming local singers and musicians.

The American Red Cross and the University of Maine at Presque Isle’s Residence Life Office are teaming up to pull off the University’s fourth “Super Blood Drive” this summer, the time of year when the need for blood increases.

The Super Blood Drive will be held from 11:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. on Monday, June 27 in Wieden Gymnasium. The event is being sponsored by the University, UMPI’s Phi Eta Sigma National Honor Society and Presque Isle Pizza Hut, and cosponsored by Big Cheese, Country Farm’s Market, Freihofer’s Bakery, L.L. Bean, Pat’s Pizza, and Wal-Mart.

University of Maine at Presque Isle alumnus and photographer Jason Grass will present his first book Faded Away during a book signing on Friday, June 17 from 1-3 p.m. in the Owl’s Nest, located in the University’s Campus Center.

A personal loss inspired Grass to create this photography art table book, a pictorial journey through the last resting places of many people who, over the centuries, have lived here and called northern Maine their home. His 162-page book takes a thoughtful look at these landscapes, of love ones lost and remembered, or with the passage of time, forgotten, and explores how we deal with loss. Faded Away also showcases the quiet beauty to be found in the area’s cemeteries, and provides an important record of this aspect of local history.